1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the improvement of an imaging apparatus and imaging method capable of a continuous shooting.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical camera capable of continuous shooting, a shutter repeatedly fires while a release button is being pressed down so that all the shot images captured during that period will be recorded as individual images. The recorded images are displayed on a camera-mounted display device to allow a user to check the images.
For example, there is an application relating to a camera having a multi-picture display function for displaying a plurality of still images arranged and displayed on one screen (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-86405). In this camera, a shooting period is divided into time blocks, and some time blocks are selected from the divided time blocks and displayed at equally spaced intervals.
In the camera having the above-mentioned multi-picture display function, shot images are once recorded in an external memory, for example, in the order of frames 1a to 1g as shown in FIG. 9A. Then, the once recorded shot images are read and processed in a playback mode to provide a multi-picture display as shown in FIG. 9B.
On the other hand, face detection techniques for detecting a face part from image data are conventionally known. As an example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-157923 discloses a person recognition device using such a face detection technique.